A luxury ‘phobia’ is gripping these consumers. It’s a red flag for luxury brands like Chanel and Gucci.

For a decade, the worldwide luxurious business operated on a easy axiom: As China goes, so goes the underside line. However, as we’ve moved into 2026, that engine of aspirational spending hasn’t simply slowed; it has basically recalibrated.

Within the high-end procuring districts of Shanghai’s Jing’an and Xintiandi, the queues that after snaked round Louis Vuitton and Chanel have thinned.